Comedian Xuan Bac becomes goodwill ambassador

HA NOI — Comedian Nguyen Xuan Bac was officially announced yesterday as the 2010-11 goodwill ambassador for Rural Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation, said Dao Xuan Hoc, deputy minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Bac was invited to play the role of an ambassador by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Lien Aid and UNICEF.

As a goodwill ambassador, Bac, 34 is expected to participate in on-site activities and to be a guest of honour at public and mass media events in order to deliver messages designed to raise public awareness about using clean water and hygienic latrines, and to help change human behaviours around water safety in rural areas.

Bac promised to send messages from the Rural Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation Sector widely and effectively to people in rural areas, with a particular focus on children.

More than 20,000 people, most of them children, die each year due to unclean water and poor sanitation in Viet Nam. Almost half of those deaths can be attributed to diarrhoea, the World Health Organisation reported.

Viet Nam has plans to provide clean water to about 83-85 per cent of rural households and build hygienic latrines in 60 per cent of rural households by the end of the year. — VNS

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OBA water supplies in rural areas discussed

A seminar on investment and the management of OBA projects which focus on clean water and hygiene in rural areas in the Mekong Delta region was held in Tien Giang province on November 29.

At the seminar, the participants, including staff from water supply systems, officials from various ministries and agencies, donors and the representatives of non-government organisations, shared their experiences in putting into action water supply projects using a newly-applied model known as OBA (outcomes-based technical assistance) which was launched by the East Meets West (EMW) Foundation.

The participants also had the chance to explore Tieng Giang province’s regulations and policies on private investment and management in rural areas and held a discussion on OBA models in several provinces such as Dong Thap, Long An, Tien Giang and An Giang.

Environmental programmes were also put on the table for discussion at the meeting, thus helping improve the effectiveness of water supply projects.

The EMW, a US non-government organisation, has helped private businesses in the central region to carry out over 150 small-scale works to supply fresh water to a number of rural areas, that benefit nearly 230,000 residents.

Since 2007, the organisation has applied a new model outcomes-based assistance and used it throughout the Mekong Delta region, particularly Tien Giang province. The organisation has also supported 24 private businesses to provide clean water for 8,700 households./.

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ADB funds safe water project for central VN

Some 350,000 rural workers in six provinces, mostly in the parched central region, will have access to safe water supply thanks to a project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

At a seminar to launch the project in Hanoi on November 17, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Dao Xuan Hoc said the project was of primary significance to locals in the central region, where the rate of safe water users in its population is lower than the national average. The region is also prone to natural disasters, suffers saline water sources and is hit by high poverty rates.

Hoc added the Government has issued a number of incentive policies to encourage private investors to invest in safe water supply along with foreign assistance in order to increase the number of safe water beneficiaries.

Paul Van Klanveren, a representative from ADB in charge of the project in Vietnam said it is the first project on safe water supply and environmental hygiene that his employer has ever funded in the central region. He expected that the project would not only bring in more equality to people in disadvantaged areas but also help Vietnam sustain its socio-economic development.

The project will run until 2017 with investment totalling 50 million USD, of which ADB provides 45 million USD in credits and the rest is contributed by Vietnam.

MARD reported that the national target programme on rural safe water supply and environmental hygiene has helped up to 79 percent of the national population to access safe water supply and 54 percent of families build standard latrines.

The nation, however, is still coping with a number of challenges in this regard./.

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